believe it or not

Idioms  

1. It's true, whether or not you agree, as in Believe it or not, I finally finished painting the house. Originating in the 1800s, this phrase gained currency as the title of a cartoon series begun in 1918 by Robert Ripley and continuing to run in American newspapers long after his death in 1949. Each drawing presented a strange but supposedly true phenomenon, such as a two-headed chicken.

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Example Sentences

Believe it or not, an apt metaphor for the status of the U.S. bond market comes from Hallmark Channel romantic movies — U.S. debt is the bad boyfriend that investors would shed, but they just have no better options. said Yale Budget Lab’s executive director Martha Gimbel, in a remark that caused laughter and head shaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing this week.

From MarketWatch

But, believe it or not, Ponomari's stand-in role might not have been the most surprising on the Wuthering Heights set.

From BBC

Many of my friends, believe it or not, they worked in GE for their whole lives.

From Slate

Believe it or not, this isn’t the most terrible wrongdoing that was transformed into a storyline.

From Salon

"Carrots are a real focus for them. They even dig potatoes up, believe it or not. The big red deer dig potatoes out of the ground," he explained.

From BBC